Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
For a certain era and for some women, I think that "Ladies and
Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains" has some things to recommend it. I
thought Adler and Demme hit a few targets with that one. I also thought
Diane Lane was gonna be a real big star the first time I saw it.
  

    
"Zachariah."  That's one weird movie.

How about "Still Crazy"?
  

    
I was wondering if you could remember any good rock movies that
starred or featured women (actors or musicians)?
  

    
The Rose?
Lady Sings the Blues?
  

    
The Rose is notable though the story is so trite and weak but Lady
Sings the Blues was a shoddy vehicle for Diana Ross' marginal acting
talents. Didn't think much of her Billie Holiday either.
  

    
David, Zachariah is so dated but it still maintains a certain charm,
like having the James Gang playing in the middle of the desert. I
thought Elvin Jones was an inspired bit of casting too. That's Pat
Quinn who played Alice Brock in Alice's Restaurant playing Belle Starr.
And a very young Don Johnson.
  

    
Lisa, I think the best rock film featuring a female musician is Prey
For Rock & Roll starring Gina Gershon, Lori Petty, and Drea deMatteo.
It's just a couple of years old. Gershon plays a
musician-by-night/tattoo-artist-by-day who's skidding into 40 and
reassessing her life in music. She wrote and performs most of the
material - our own Texas Terri has a cameo performance too. It's got
its flaws but is a really decent effort.
  

    
I bought the DVD of "Zachariah" a few months ago, from the Firesign Theatre
web site (they wrote it!).  The Elvin Jones drum solo was a definite
highlight!
  

    
Lisa, was this a Book That Had To Be Written, or what else motivated you to
write this book, now? If you weren't an academic, would you be able to pull
off the (favorable) association of groupies and critics?
  

    
Lisa, I'm so glad you're here! I'm enjoying the hell out of the book. 

I'll let you take bumbaugh's question first, of course, but I'd be
interested in some general observations from you about how things have
changed for women around/in the business over the last three or four
decades.
  

    
bumbaugh, great questions! I believe a book on this subject (in fact
many) need to be written. Compared to the amount of material out there
on male rockers of the '60s and '70s, the available material for women
is fairly small, especially that which uses academic quality citations
and evidence. 
Initially, I came to the book out necessity. I was researching a film
topic for my doctoral dissertation and wasn't sure that the actor had
left her papers anywhere (kids, don't try this at home!). After a year
of research, I found them in a small municipal museum on the
Alabama/Georgia border. When I spoke with the curator, she told me that
she had sold the publication rights to the collection to Knopf for the
next 10 years. That left the project dead.
I had a dissertation that had to be done and I was sinking into
poverty and despair. So I thought, "What do I already know something
about, something that I can stand researching for five years?" So I
thought women rockers sounded good and I had always wanted to read old
Rolling Stones from before I was old enought to remember the magazine.
So I decided to write about articles on women rockers in the Rolling
Stone from 1967-1972 for my dissertation. 
Once I started doing the literature review (i.e.what has already been
written about the subject), I realized that next to nothing had been
written about women rockers or Rolling Stone or the rock press for that
matter in academia. Then I realized that I had found an area that was
badly in need of research. 
After the dissertation, I sent the book out to several presses and
received a variety of responses. Two rejection letters that I think bet
me back from the mailbox, one letter of interest, and a phone call
from U of Pennsylvania Press. They asked me to expand the project to
include an entire decade and to include the Village Voice (which is NOT
indexed).
After doing the book, I can say that I have a much better appreciation
for women's contributions to the culture of the era and even
discovered a few women whose work I didn't know about, both musicians
and journalists. 
As to the last part of your question, "If you weren't an academic,
would you be able to pull off the (favorable) association of groupies
and critics?" I believe the answer is yes for many reasons. I detect a
note of criticism or censure of, I am assuming, the groupies, in your
question:
1. Groupies are women who are having sex for fun and status. What's
wrong with that?
2. Women in rock culture means all women.
3. Even if I were to disapprove of groupies sexual activities (which I
don't), feminism tells me that all women are my sisters and it is
counterproductive to judge them by who they have sex with .
4. Groupies make rock sexy and I like sexy rock. 

   
  

    
divinea, I think the answer to your question is lots and not at all.
There are more women in the field in certain areas, rock journalism for
one, than there were in the '60s and '70s, but I believe that they
still have a tougher time at it than the male journalists by and large.
There are notable successes (Ann Powers of the NY Times leaps to mind)
but then there have always been a few exceptions. M, as a woman
journalist currently working in the field, you could field this one
better than me.
As for the musicians, I believe that there are more options for women
to participate but their participation as instrumentalists is still
very circumscribed. I am researching a new book on women
instrumentalists of the '60s and '70s and think it is crucial to
understanding women's roles in rock culture to better understand the
women who play instruments besides their voices. Have things really
changed today when women are ghettoized into being "chick bass
players?" That is an oversimplification and I think there's more to it,
but my research is just beginning. 
As for the groupies, I discuss in the conclusion of the book how the
subculture has changed, and not (I believe) for the better. M, once
again, you know a lot about current conditions in the groupie
subculture. 
So pleased you are liking the book!
  

    
(Not censure so much as recognition of stigma. Rolling Stone doesn't/didn't
regularly run feature stories on the women backstage, treats (if at
all)/treated them very differently. And so, too, the larger culture (insofar
as groupies get notice at all). For an academic, putting them all in one
boat makes sense, esp in a feminist context. For a "popular" book, it seems
more provocative.)
  

    
Sex and rock and roll go together.

But where's the drugs?   

Janis.  Grace.  Stevie.  Cass.  

There are stories.....
  

    
I can see how it might seem provocative to include groupies to some
folks. As a former musician, the idea of excluding them seems a lot
more provacative, especially in light of their ubiquity, panache and
influence on the scene.
As for the drugs, this wasn't a tell-all type book and I included the
drugs where they made sense,i.e. Janis's story is still there and still
sad. In the first chapter I do address the shift in the drugs of
choice during the late '60s and early '70s among those in the counter
culture. 
  

    
So did you have groupies when you were a musician, Lisa? Boys? Girls?
Or did the guys in the band get 'em -- whether they took advantage of
the situation or not -- and you never did? I've always wondered this
about female rockers, because there were times I certainly had the
impulse. 
  

    
Yes, Ed, I had groupies, male and female, if by groupies you mean fans
who wanted to have sex with me that I actually met. Some of the female
groupies I knew were more like courtesans or muses. They were really
amazing people who were very plugged into style and music and very
savvy or at least a lot of fun. One of the best known and most
successful groupies I knew in Austin lent me a great jumpsuit to play
that Tubes show at the Austin Opera House that you panned ;)  
Most of the guys I played with were much older and married (I was in
my early 20s they were in their late 30s) with families. One of them
liked to have sex with groupies on the road. Knowing the guys I used to
play with, you can pretty much figure out which one. As for whether
the guys in the band "got" the groupies instead of me, well having you
name in lights and being out front always seems to trump everything
else.
Female rockers react to groupies as individuals. Some like them, some
don't. Some want women groupies, some want male ones. I might add, that
this is true for male rockers too, there are some gay ones. 
  

    

> Rolling Stone doesn't/didn't
>  regularly run feature stories on the women backstage, treats (if at
>  all)/treated them very differently.

But the Rolling Stone Groupies issue certainly was groundbreaking for
several reasons. It put Jann Wenner's relatively small publication into the
limelight in such a way that his whole world changed. It also legitimized
what groupies did by making a subset of them stars in their own right.

Suddenly Karen (the woman who's photo by Baron Wolman graced that issue of
Rolling Stone and also graces "Electric Ladyland") was somebody important,
not just a backstage decoration. She, and Harlow and Henri (Hi Henri,
if you're reading this!) and all the other women in that issue -- they 
were so interesting, so ... so ... so cool! 
  

    
BTW, Karen was, I believe, Baron Wolman's wife or girlfriend or
something at the time the photo was made. 
  

    
Cynthia, absolutely true. I found the aspect of the Groupie Issue that
really put RS on the map was the fact that they bought a full back
page ad in the NY Times the week the issue came out. No one in the
"legitimate" press could figure out how the magazine could have
afforded it, but it intrigued them and served as Wenner's first volley
into above ground journalism. I discuss this in some detail in the
book. 
The issue did identify some of groupies to those outside the rock
subculture. But it also let people who didn't know them (or any other
groupies for that matter) talk about them in the only terms they could
talk about women who had sex with lots of men, i.e. easy, whore, bad
girl, woman of no value. In the long run, I think "outing" the groupies
to the world at large has left them vulnerable to some really shoddy
journalism and hyberbole. 
Steve, Baron didn't mention that he and Karen were going out, but if
that beautiful picture he took of her doesn't say it, what will? I'm
ashamed that I didn't ask him about it. (LOL) The shot really is the
crown jewel of an already stunning collection of pictures of the
groupies. I included as many of Baron's pictures as I could afford and
he was very generous because it was a small press (and he is a really
decent guy). I am so pleased that he allowed us to put Karen on the
cover. I think her expression captures the spirit of the times
perfectly. 
  

    
That issue also made it possible for Jenny Fabian's novel Groupie to
get published, which set half its readers onto a
who's-that-supposed-to-be hunt and the other half into thinking more
seriously about the whole phenom. 
  

    
Not to mention that that issue and the subsequent book Groupies was
the epiphany of my life at age 15. I badgered my mother into buying the
book for me when I saw it at our local supermarket in 1970. And the
book quite literally became my Bible. I mean, here were all these women
(and the odd man or two) being celebrated for ... SEX WITH ROCK STARS.
It seemed so damn cool and so far away from my mundane life. 

I decided I wanted to be a groupie then and there. It wasn't hard,
with the massive crush on Stevie Winwood I had. In fact, my entire
purpose for being a groupie was with hopes of getting to Stevie Winwood
but a romance got in the way. I almost came face to face with him in
Seattle in '72 (I think, it was the Low Sparks tour and Traffic played
the Paramount Theatre) but I sort of chickened out/felt too guilty
about my boyfriend to do anything but stare at him from about 10 feet
away. Next time I fell for a musician, I wouldn't be so shy. 
  

    
Among the many things I loved about being a groupie was the healthy
respect and admiration it gave me for women musicians. By the time the
punk/new wave scene kicked in around Austin, I was well aware of the
power of a trend and recognized early that punk/new wave was the first
trend to really offer women an equal opportunity at the music game. You
could embrace your inner slut and sing about feminist politics at the
same time. It was an intoxicating combination for me and I participated
not by performing but by managing one of the primary female-fronted
bands in Austin, the Chickadiesels. I also managed the notorious Huns
for a short while and should point out I wasn't a good band manager.
But punk was nothing if not a total immersion movement and you could be
pretty much whatever you wanted to be.

I always regarded Lisa as one of the best of the distaff musicians of
the era in Austin. I was a fan of 5 Spot especially and thought the way
she surrounded herself with some of the best players and songwriters
from the scene was smart and savvy. She played guitar well and with
confidence, and had a knack for songwriting that I thought was
underrated. In fact, I really expected her to break in a big way. And I
think her songs still hold up. I'd put "Shivers" on any 80s collection
out of Austin.

I also valued the touring women musicians I met during the late 70s
and early 80s. I loved how Southern and quirky Kate and Cindy from the
B-52s were, and how beautifully aloof Annie Lennox was in the Tourists.
I adored Chrissie Hynde for shooing her band from the couches
backstage at the Armadillo and inviting the Texas Blondes in to talk
with her. I adored Marianne Faithfull at Club Foot for being so
incredibly witty and so obviously vulnerable. I was so impressed that
Tina Weymouth was such an integral part of Talking Heads. Debbie Harry
was quite literally my idol - for the better part of 20 years, I wore
my hair bleached like hers with the brunette underlayer. And my
experiences around these women really shaped not just my view of women
in music but inspired me to continue writing. 
  

    
M, thanks for the kind words (I blush in a virtual way). I really
wanted to include women from all different parts of the rock world in
this book because I don't see them as separate. As a youngster, I
learned so much from the older women performers and journalists. I
never will forget the kindnesses, like the time when I was trying to
decide whether to sign a management contract. I didn't know what the
standard terms were and I didn't know who to ask. I mentioned this to
Lou Ann Barton and she GAVE me a copy of her contract with Jerry Wexler
to look at. 
When I opened for Joan Jett, she noticed that 5 Spot played a Suzi
Quatro song and invited me backstage to play it with her. She gave me
road tips and I was in awe because she had already been on the road so
many years (She was 21, I was 20). There are so many instances of women
from all areas of the industry and subculture helping each other out
that I wanted to try and recreate that in the book. 
  

    

> Chickadiesels

Love that name.

Chrissie Hynde is one of the greatest, full stop.

In my magazine writing days, I had two succcessive encounters with female-
fronted bands that really pushed my buttons.  My editor (at Record magazine)
decided that I should put 'em together into one piece.

BIMBO ROCK
Missing Persons and Berlin are less than the sum of their parts, so to speak
(9/84 issue)

http://www.levity.com/gans/bimbo.html


Both Terri Nunn and Dale Bozzio seemed to be taking a giant step backward,
with musical quality taking a back seat to sexual manipulation.

I might have a completely different take on all this now, being 20 years
older and a good deal more well-adjusted in general, but at the time, I
thought their come-ons to me were ludicrous.